Wild at Tuli Conservation CampSaving Botswana Wildlife

WORDS Bianca Wiedmann

A mother elephant waits for her calf as the rest of the herd moves ahead. The young elephant needs to keep up but isn’t strong enough. Their instinct is to follow the herd; without it neither will survive. She makes a heart-wrenching decision and leaves her new born behind. Left alone to fend for himself, his days are numbered and he will most likely perish at the hands of drought and hunger. This is life in the wild, in times like these you can smell death as it wafts over Wild at Tuli game reserve.

Botswana has the highest elephant population in Africa. Elephants can drink up to 200 litres of water a day, so volunteers build waterholes to help wildlife in the drought. Photo: Esteban Chèvre

Wild at Tuli is a conservation camp in Botswana, home to over 400 animals and 2,000-year old baobabs. The base camp of Projects Abroad is located at the Limpopo River in the central Tuli Block of southern Botswana. Dr Helena Fitchat and Judi Gounaris bought the land in 2007, when they realised that in order to help save animals they must preserve their natural habitat. Now they dedicate their lives to wildlife conservation. Together with Projects Abroad volunteers they are fighting to save the animals and their habitat.

Drought & desperation

One of the main challenges animals are currently facing is the lack of food due to the ongoing drought since March. Without water, many plants and trees are drying up and withering away, resulting in less food for animals. Grass has turned brown. Rivers run low under the heat of the sun, leaving many waterbeds dry and dusty.

Female elephants struggle especially during droughts. If their bodyweight drops from lack of food they are more likely to miscarry or have a still birth during pregnancy. If they do manage to give birth to a healthy calf, they often struggle to produce enough milk to feed them. This is especially tragic to the African elephant population, whose gestation period is 22 months, the longest pregnancy span of all land animals. If elephants miscarry, it is not uncommon for them to wait up to five years to become pregnant again.

As well as the problems with reproduction, animals often have to walk long distances to get to the source of their food and water. They may even have to search for nutrients in new places as traditional waterholes dry up and the roots, leaves and grasses they rely on continue to disappear. As the food supply drops, the animals grow thinner and weaker, and battle to trek the distances necessary to find food.

The drought in Botswana has an impact on all wildlife. The lack of food leads to starvation and death is often the outcome. Photo: Esteban Chèvre

Sophie Juget, Wild at Tuli Base Camp Manager worries for the fate of the animals if the drought doesn’t break. ‘If the drought continues we will start to see more wildlife dying and sadly it will be too late to help them,’ she sombrely says. There is no doubt that rain is desperately needed at Wild at Tuli.

What are volunteers doing to help?

‘Volunteers play a crucial and important role here on the reserve and for the conservation of the area. Without their hard work, we would never achieve as much as we do,’ Juget explains. Volunteers focus mostly on census and survey projects but they also participate in the building of dams and waterholes as well as installing solar pumps to help replenish nutrients for the animals lost during to the drought.

The volunteers work hard to undo the damage of the drought. Different types of waterholes must be built, depending on the condition of the surroundings. First a hole has to be dug with shovels and picks. Then the base is lined with stones and cement to prevent the water being absorbed into the ground. Finally, a water tank is buried alongside the waterhole and solar pumps are used to transfer water from the tank into the basin. This is especially helpful to animals like the elephant as it can drink up to 200 litres of water a day!

Ironically, when it finally does rain, the earth is often too dry to absorb the water – this isn’t a problem for the waterholes but it is for the vegetation because it remains on the surface and washes away any fertile soil. In order to prevent this, volunteers build dams to stop seeds, leaves and grass from washing away. They will do this through a process called earth control erosion. A hole is excavated into the earth and stakes are dug into the terrain. Branches are woven around the stakes preventing any vegetation from running off in the case of rain. Esteban Chèvre, a volunteer who spent ten weeks on the conservation project, commented on the physical work at the camp, ‘If you always think about the animals you are helping then the work doesn’t feel as difficult.’

Ironically, when it finally does rain, the earth is often too dry to absorb the water – this isn’t a problem for the waterholes but it is for the vegetation because it remains on the surface and washes away any fertile soil.

As well as building waterholes and dams, volunteers collect seeds from a variety of grasses during spring time. The seeds are distributed in anticipation for the rainy season and planted in areas where the vegetation is scarce so that new plants will flourish. The more areas that are replanted, the more potential food there will be for the animals.

Recently, Juget introduced an additional preventative measure which involved watering specific areas in regions that are dry and lacking foliage. Here, water was collected from man-made water tanks and driven out to areas where almost no green plants were left. A variety of plants needed to be watered, since each animal species eats different types of grasses and shrubs. After a week, the first leaves were spotted, a small symbol of hope.

Part of the work done at the conservation centre involves earth erosion control. This dam prevents nutritious ground from floating away during the rainy season. Photo: Esteban Chèvre

The volunteers are proud of the improvements they have achieved. Chèvre describes his satisfaction, ‘It is the best feeling ever,’ he says, ‘to see the red sky on one side [of the horizon] and then the full moon on the other and a hyena at the waterhole we had built a few weeks before.’ Carol van Raalte, a volunteer for two months, added, ‘This is the reward for doing conservation work – there are now waterholes built in places where water was lacking. I think without them a lot of animals would have died.’

Hope & a newfound appreciation for nature

According to Juget, ‘more species have been spotted and new ones are being discovered.’ Right now it’s too soon to tell, but population numbers seem to be improving. For example, Botswana currently has the highest elephant population in all of Africa which is a positive sign. Animals seem to be responding well to the waterholes and dams the volunteers have built. Areas that have been replanted by volunteers are now filled with new grasses. Animals have been spotted eating leaves and other foliage the volunteers have redistributed. Cameras with motion detectors have been placed near the waterholes. Every time an animal passes through, their movement is registered and a picture is taken. With this data, breakdown analyses are being created that include how many, how often and which species are utilising the waterholes. And the recording is just beginning. ‘In a few years more information and data will be collected and a more detailed report can be written,’ Juget says.

Conservation is an ongoing process and conservation workers have to face many challenges but volunteers in the field have indicated a positive side effect: a new appreciation for nature and wildlife. Van Raalte recalled her experience on a bush picnic. When a herd of elephants came close, she explained how unsafe she felt being outside of a car. However, as she continued to work at Wild at Tuli that fear faded away. She reflected on this after she left the conservation centre. ‘Normally I wouldn’t really think about animals,’ she acknowledged. ‘But now I will. After spending time with wildlife, you naturally learn how to behave and interact with animals.’